You grip the rail where Banksia roots cling tight
Harbor wind pulls salt through stitch and hide
Quercus fibers hold the waning light
Tide breathes slow where mangroves reside
And you listen like xylem drinks the rain
Roots remember what the leaves explain
Sydney dusk writes chlorophyll on skin
Tannin and tide let the night begin
Eucalyptus oil on evening gust
Your palm reads bark-rough grain of time
Photosynthesis fails the day adjusts
Stomata close in rhythm reason rhyme
Acacia thorns scratch stories in the grain
Harbor lights bloom phosphorescent cold
You feel the sap retreat from vein to vein
Winter dormancy in leather fold
And you listen like xylem drinks the rain
Roots remember what the leaves explain
Sydney dusk writes chlorophyll on skin
Tannin and tide let the night begin
No chloroplast captures harbor flare
But hide retains what roots declare
Each crease a growth ring salt and silica
You wear the forest like a second derma
Opera House shells catch final photons pale
Your gloves absorb the harbor's acid sigh
Lignin hardens where the fingernails fail
Patient cellulose outlives you and I
And you listen like xylem drinks the rain
Roots remember what the leaves explain
Sydney dusk writes chlorophyll on skin
Tannin and tide let the night begin
Leather remembers roots remember
Tannin and tide stay listening
